Virtual training systems have gained increasing acceptance and sophistication in recent years. However, inadequate training can lead to a higher incidence of mistakes. Thus, clinicians desire a more objective method for quantifying clinical technical skill.
Various systems that involve a human-machine interface, including virtual systems, can involve human motions that are random in nature. A person performing a repeatable task multiple times often generates different motion measurements (e.g., forces, velocities, positions, etc.) despite the fact that the measurements represent the same task performed with the same level of skill. Thus, skill modeling should uncover and measure the underlying characteristics of skill hidden in measurable motion data.
One example of such a system that includes a human-machine interface is a teleoperated robotic surgical system, such as the da Vinci® Surgical System commercialized by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. A skilled operator may perform a particular task many times when using a teleoperated robotic surgical system, even though the operator exhibits many small motion characteristic variations among the many task performances. And, an operator with a less proficient skill level will often exhibit motion characteristics when performing the particular task that are significantly different from the skilled operator's motion characteristics for the task.
What is desired is a way to identify how an unskilled or lesser skilled operator's motion characteristics compare with a skilled operator's motion characteristics so that the unskilled or lesser skilled operator's task proficiency can be objectively quantified. What is also desired is a way to provide an objective quantification of an operator's skill level that can be used to help train the operator to perform at a higher skill level. In particular, it is desirable to objectively quantify particular surgical task performances of a surgeon who is learning to use a telerobotic surgical system, and then to use the task performance information to help the surgeon achieve a more proficient performance level.